Available at Amazon.com
Directed by
Oliver Stone
Cast:
Anthony Hopkins … Old Ptolemy
David Bedella … Scribe
Jessie Kamm … Child Alexander
Angelina Jolie … Olympias
Val Kilmer … Philip
Fiona O’Shaughnessy … Nurse
Connor Paolo … Young Alexander
Patrick Carroll … Young Hephaistion
Brian Blessed … Wrestling Trainer
Peter Williamson … Young Nearchus
Morgan Christopher Ferris … Young Cassander
Robert Earley … Young Ptolemy
Aleczander Gordon … Young Perdiccas
Christopher Plummer … Aristotle
Gary Stretch … Cleitus
John Kavanagh … Parmenion
Nick Dunning … Attalus
Marie Meyer … Eurydice
Mick Lally … Horse Seller
Colin Farrell … Alexander
Rosario Dawson … Roxane
One of the biggest phenomenons of the DVD market is the rise of the “Director’s Cut”, that not so rare opportunity these days to see versions of movies that usually feature deleted footage not shown in theaters. While many of these new cuts are just a marketing ploy that end up inconsequential to the movie’s quality, some actually turn out to be much better films due to the new scenes, such as the Kingdom of Heaven: Director’s Cut, which was one of the best DVD’s of 2006 and ended up turning a mediocre film into a great one. So it was with that precedent that I was hoping Alexander Revisited would perhaps have the same results. By adding 45 minutes and reconstructing Oliver Stone’s film from the ground up by completely re-editing it, this is apparently the final version of this movie that will ever be produced and represents the director’s ultimate vision. Could the critically panned, commercial failure finally turn out to be a good or even great film? After seeing this epic story in this, its final form, the answer is without a doubt a resounding “NO”!
You see, the purpose of many “Director’s Cuts” is to restore footage that perhaps fleshes out storylines or perhaps to add a particular mood or another subplot that was originally edited out for time considerations or maybe to make the film more marketable. Alexander on the other hand, never really felt incomplete. The movie was already a laborious experience, with a decent first half and a final hour that seemed to never want to end. Alexander Revisited heightens this experience even further by frontloading the movie’s best parts into its first half hour. The audience at that point must still deal with Alexander’s over the top acting and misguided direction for another three long hours.
It’s hard to even point out where the problems with the films really lie, because seemingly everything is going wrong. First up is the film’s acting, which is pretty much atrocious across the board. A film like this usually lives and dies with its star, and Alexander certainly dies with the acting of Colin Farrell in the movie’s title role. Insipid instead of inspiring, Alexander the Great, one of the most important figures in the history of the world, comes off as a whiny boy king, unable to keep us interested in either his exploits or his personal life. Most of the rest of the actors just seem to be doing bad Scottish accents, especially Val Kilmer’s King Phillip, who stumbles around and seems to letting his makeup, which makes him look as if he has one eye, do the acting for him.
Top (or bottom for that matter) of the heap in this category is Angelina Jolie, who is so campy that you’ll wonder if she thought she was in another movie entirely. A scene in which she’s dictating a letter and talks about Alexander marrying a pure blood, feels as if the sequence was deleted footage from a vampire movie. This is just one in a series of unintentionally funny scenes from the actress, which will make you ask yourself why directors keep giving her the opportunity to do bad accents.
The only cast members who come out of this movie unscathed are Anthony Hopkins, who provides wonderful narration throughout the movie, but only ends up making you wonder how his character Ptolemy would have so much devotion to this spoiled brat of a leader. The other joy in this movie comes from Rosario Dawson as Alexander’s barbarian queen Roxane, who is not given nearly enough screen time in this picture. At least looking like she’s having fun in the picture, her scenes represent the only highlights in this other than the opening battle.
It’s difficult to even ascertain what Oliver Stone was even going for in much of this film. The lethargic pace of this picture is mind numbing as we go from one episodic set piece to another, losing the early momentum from the movie’s opening battle scene, which is the only moment the director reaches the grandeur of the early epics he is trying to emulate. The film’s telling scene comes two thirds through the movie, as Alexander tries to rally his troops through a difficult march through India. The entire sequence only breeds confusion, as the music and cinematography swell as if Alexander were giving the “Band of Brothers” speech from Henry V, but in listening to the actual dialogue, you realize the Macedonian is actually berating his men for being ungrateful. The sequence then ends with a near riot and his men losing more faith in their leader.
You can almost see Stone doing the same thing here, yelling at his audience for not appreciating this movie when he’s put so much work into it, and punishing us with another 45 minutes. We in turn then lose complete faith in a satisfying experience. Alexander Revisited is a film that is nearly identical to the theatrical in feel, as the movie adds nothing more than additional instances of bad acting and worse direction. You can feel Stone’s passion throughout this piece, but as the movie goes off the rails, you can feel the train’s mad conductor just throwing more fuel on the fire, just taking us further over the cliff. This is a failure of such colossal proportions that you wonder how it even got finished in the first place, not to mention reaching this third unexceptional version.
The Video
The movie is spread out over two discs and looks really spectacular. Colors are bright and the picture quality on this print seems nearly flawless. The film is presented in Anamorphic Widescreen with an aspect ratio of 2.35:1.
The Audio
The Audio track is presented in Dolby Digital 5.1 and is also pretty great. The music in particular to the battle scene is pretty rousing and you never lose any quality even when action dialogue and score are all trying to overlap.
SPECIAL FEATURES: Introduction
Introduction by Director Oliver Stone – The only feature on this disc is a 3 minute introduction by Stone, who tries to explain what he was trying to do with this cut. Admittedly, this intro got me a little excited that perhaps this experience would be significantly different, and perhaps lead to even more disappointment at the final product.
